Germany!!!

End of July we headed to Germany and met up with the Millers.  We had a great vacation, lots of laughs and great memories made!  After getting in late on Thursday night, we got up Friday morning and headed to the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  This beautiful walled city was the Miller/King meeting spot!  We all ran towards each other and embraced after not seeing each other in person for over a year, great reunion!  We wandered around the town for a bit while looking for a place to eat lunch.  And after very little time, all the kids together again like no time had passed!  After lunch we decided to walk on the wall around the town and take in the views.  Then we went to the torture museum, which was really interesting.  Makes you wonder if we used some of those measure today we would have less problems!  After trying the towns famouse snowballs, we made our way to the cars and onto Garmisch.  We checked in to our cabins and went out for a traditional German meal, delish!  While the guys waited to pay the bill, Melani and I took the kids and wandered the streets.  A drunk man found us and was hard to shake, the kids thought that was funny!!! 

Beautiful window boxes with flowers, all over Germany

One of many clock towers throughout the town of Rothenburg.

Shawn and Tyler, reunited!!

Snowballs, yummy pastries!

Mackenzie and Alyssa, little buddies!

Beautiful streets, with these cool shop signs.



Kids at dinner the first night, Melani's birthday dinner!

                                    

By the time we got a few things taken care of on Saturday morning it got overcast and rainy, so we headed to Linderhof Palace, one of King Ludwigs homes.  It was modest in comparsion to others in size, with the most interesting feature being the magic table!  We got rained on quite a bit before we went inside, but it cleared up by the time we wandered around the grounds of the palace.  After we left the palace we went to a bier garten that someone had recommended to Jeff.  I can't remember the name of the place, but it was amazing!  Off the beaten path a little, on a lake and with a large local or german tourist crowd.  We were the only ones speaking English!  I think by the end of the evening 3 out of the 6 kids were wet from falling into the lake!  The food, beer, atmosphere and company was fantastic!  And on our way out there was a beautiful rainbow!  Another great day in Germany!

Kids at the Lodge!

Rainy start to our day in the gardens of the Palace, waiting to get in.

Linderhof Palace

Our favorite Bier Garten on the lake!

 

Sunday morning was overcast and drizzily again, so we headed out of the valley and through the mountains to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles.  Neuschwanstein was covered in scaffolding, so we just walked around town and took a carriage ride.  That evening the kids swam at the pool at the hotel, then we went into town for their local bier fest!  So much fun, saw traditional dancing and Brian almost got sick from riding a ride!  Another great German day!

Monday morning, weather was better, so we were off on an outdoor adventure!  We went to the Olympic ski jump area, and they had tabagon rides we did with the kids!  All the kids and adults had a great time!  Then we hiked Parchnach Gorge, which was amazing.  Again, all the kids did a great job walking!  Brian has a slight mishap and tumbled down a hill, scared everyone for a minute!  Then we spent another afternoon at the pool!  The view from the hotel is unbelievable!

Tuesday was amazing, up we went to the Zugspitz!  We took the cograil train up and when we got off the kids got to go sledding and have a snowball fight in July!  When we finally made it all the way to the top by gondola, the clouds had moved in.  Still amazing!

Snowball fight in July, kids thought this was great!

Amazing view of the lake below!

Random park we walked through in Garmisch, really pretty.

Cow bench!

Wednesday, our bike riding day!  We rented bikes for everyone and rode around town.  The kids were troopers, up and down hills and on busy streets.  After our morning ride, we rode to a lake and had lunch there!  Then onto town and up another big hill.  Our way home was my favorite, through the country and along the river!  Overall a fun day that we followed up with more swimming!

Our view at lunch, lake with Zugspitze in the background!

Thurday, another day of mountain tops!  We took a gondola to the top of Alpspitze and hiked down to Kreuzeck and took the cable car down from there.  The view were spectacular and the hike was fun for everyone.  Again, all the kids did a great job with minimal whining!

View of Garmisch from above!

Brian's second battle wound, Shawn jumped up and hit him with his hard head.

Kids thought this was great, Nina in stone on one of our hikes!

Rest stop!

This is the place I stayed at with Melinda and Tracy 9 years ago!

Kids in the pool!

Last but not least....Legoland, the kids say this was their favorite.  It really was a fun day with stuff for everyone!  We left there thinking we had a 3 hour drive, but there was tons of traffic.  Then we stopped in a town to try and find dinner and ended up at McDonalds when we couldn't find anything open on a Friday night.  We stayed in a little town called Ottersberg, in a very quaint hotel with plenty of space.  Only downside was the church bells that rang the next morning at 6am!!!